Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States Paul Richard Gallagher and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov © Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS
Ishtartv.com
- tass.com
MOSCOW, November 9./TASS/. Moscow
and the Vatican have agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation within
international and European agencies in order to protect Christians, Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday, following talks with
the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher.
During their talks, the parties
specifically focused on the Middle East region, in particular the developments
in Syria, Libya and Iraq. "Also from the point of view of the situation in
which the Christian communities find themselves in these countries,"
Lavrov stressed. "We have agreed to strengthen cooperation on these issues
- protection of Christians - in the UN, in the OSCE and in the Council of
Europe," the top diplomat went on to say.
Russia welcomes the efforts of the
Holy See aimed at "strengthening international stability, peaceful
settlement of conflict situations and the development of an inter-Church
dialogue," he said. "We see eye-to-eye as to the need to protect the
institution of the family, we agreed to coordinate efforts at international
platforms to defend the enduring spiritual and moral Christian values,"
Lavrov said.
Moscow "is interested in
giving a further boost to scientific, academic contacts" with Vatican, he
added. "The planned for the signing agreement on mutual recognition of
education, qualification and academic degrees is intended to facilitate
this," the Russian diplomat summed up.
|